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Duran Duran guitarist leaves band

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NEW YORK -- British band Duran Duran said guitarist Andy Taylor has left the group ahead of the U.S. leg of a world tour -- five years after the chart-topping 1980s band got back together.

A statement on the group's Web site said the relationship with Taylor had become unworkable.

"The four of us have dissolved our partnership and will be continuing as Duran Duran without Andy," said the statement.

"We have reached a point in our relationship with him where there is an unworkable gulf between us and we can no longer effectively function together," it said without giving any further details.

Duran Duran was one of Britain's biggest acts of the 1980s, with synthesizer-driven hit singles such as "Rio" and "Hungry Like the Wolf" and experimental music videos.

Its five original members -- frontman Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Roger Taylor and Andy Taylor (none of the Taylors are related) -- reunited about five years ago after the band went through line-up changes.

The band will continue its tour with the remaining four members, playing eight U.S. cities over the next two weeks starting with Chicago on Thursday.

They said Dom Brown would stand in as guitarist until the tour ends on Nov. 11. Then the band will return to the studio to continue recording, following a recent collaboration with U.S. singer Justin Timberlake and producer-rapper Timbaland. A new album is expected out next year.

It is the third time that the London-based Brown has stood in for Duran Duran. He performed with the band in late 2004 and again in March 2005, according to Brown's Web site.

Brown has worked as a session player with major-label artists such as Elton John and Rod Stewart in addition to Duran Duran, the Web site says.